


Say Hello

by berreh



Category: NCIS
Genre: Ficlet, Fluff, Gen, Pets, Pointless, Shippy Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-29
Updated: 2016-09-29
Packaged: 2018-08-18 10:05:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8158291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/berreh/pseuds/berreh
Summary: Abby introduces McGee to her new friends.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written while I was binge-watching NCIS in 2010, as the intro to a long Abby/McGee story that never came to pass.

“McGee! I’m so glad you’re here!”

Abby seized a puzzled-looking McGee by one arm and dragged him into the lab.

“You are?”

“Of course! I mean, I always am, but this time I _really_ am. Today is a very special day!”

McGee held up the evidence bag he’d brought with him. “The carpet fibers from the Smith case?”

“No, no, no,” Abby said. “This!”

She led them through the lab to the bookshelves behind her desk, the one where she kept her Living Dead Doll collection. But the dolls had been moved aside, and in their place was a wire mesh cage lined with black cloth. Abby gestured at it, beaming.

“Ta da! Well, whaddya think?”

McGee squinted at the cage. Curled up in the center lay two furry shapes, as dark as the cloth, snoozing quietly.

“Are those… rats?”

“Not just any rats — these are genuine Louisiana crypt rats. Two beautiful boys. At least the guy at the shop told me they were boys. I haven’t really checked for, uh, evidence yet.”

She ran a black-polished fingertip along the wire mesh making a faint whirring sound. One small nose poked up from the cloth and sniffed, and then another joined it. Two long, thin, hairless tails uncurled like tentacles against the mesh. Both rats stretched lazily and wandered to the front of the cage, sniffing at Abby’s finger while she cooed.

“This is Peter, and this is Murphy. Aren’t they cute?”

Several words came to McGee’s mind as he watched two sewer creatures lick Abby’s fingertips, but ‘cute’ was not one of them.

“Are you allowed to have pets in here?”

“This is a lab, McGee. Of course I’m allowed to have rats. Do the powers that be really need to know that I’m making little collars for them instead of spraying chemicals in their eyes or whatever? Anyway, they’re not really pets, per se. Think of them as... mascots.”

“Of what?”

“Of Team Abby!” She turned to him with a smile, but then her face fell and she pouted. “You don’t like them.”

“No— it’s not that.”

McGee bent a little closer to the cage, tilting his head to examine the two inhabitants. The rats were sniffing each other now, snuggled up together in the black cloth (velvet, he realized) with their tails tucked away and their little ratty noses twitching. They were kinda cute, actually. McGee touched a finger to the mesh and the closest rat leaned forward to sniff it, tiny whiskers tickling his skin. He grinned.

“Hey there, Peter.”

“That’s Murphy.”

“How can you tell?”

“A mother knows her children, McGee.”

“Okay then.” Straightening abruptly, McGee wiped his hand on his jacket. “Anyway, uh, Gibbs is really in a hurry about these carpet fibers, and—”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ve got the mass-spec ready and waiting.” Abby snatched the evidence bag from him and shrugged as a faint tinge of pink touched her cheeks. “I just wanted you to be the first to meet Peter and Murphy, that’s all. I thought that, I dunno, maybe you might like them.”

McGee flicked the end of her left pigtail, then gave it a little tug. “I like that _you_ like them.”

Looking up at him, Abby grinned. Then she grabbed his arm and dragged him off toward the equipment table.

“Right. Carpet fibers. Let’s see what we got.”


End file.
